Many businesses such as fast food outlets, gasoline service stations, quick-stop or convenience stores, theaters, and other such businesses often display information about their products, services, and prices on outdoor display signs near the places of business. A common form of outdoor commercial signage is comprised of a metal rectangular box containing fluorescent tubes illuminating a translucent face on one or two sides. The box may be mounted on a wall or supported by one or more poles or support columns. Typically, single or double-faced electric signs are mounted on two poles, often called “goal post” or “pylon” signs. Literally millions of such signs are in use nationally in all variety of applications for businesses large and small. Face dimensions may vary from less than twenty to over several hundred square feet.
A subset of the pylon-type of signs is mid-sized pylon signs that need “changeable graphics.” In other words, the information on the signs must sometimes be changed based on updates in market conditions, competition, and the products or services that are marketed by the business establishment. The price digits on gas station signs, the list of “specials” at convenience stores, the titles of movies showing at a theater—all are examples of changeable graphics. Various devices have been used to accomplish the process of changing the information on the signs.
Historically, fixed “reader boards” were used, whereby numbers and letters were positioned in grooves by a person standing on a ladder. More recently, changeable marquee signs use clip-in numbers and letters that are raised to the sign face by an operator using a long pole with a suction cup. High winds tended to blow the numbers and letters from the grooves, however, often tearing them and requiring replacement. Numbers and letters are easily lost or broken and are costly to replace. Layouts tend to be sloppy and limited in length; images, restricted in their design. In addition, such devices often placed personnel at risk (as they climb and work from high ladders) and required excessive amounts of time and labor because changing copy is slow and difficult work, especially in hot, cold, wet, or windy conditions.
To avoid these problems, devices which allow the sign to be lowered to ground level while the display is changed and then raised to its normal display height have been developed. Inevitably these devices create as many problems as they solve. If the sign is lowered to ground level for changing, special winch systems are usually employed along with a guide system to restrain the sign from swinging while being lowered. This is usually a result of such signs being heavily constructed. The process of lowering such signs often requires two or more people to accomplish the task.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,349 issued to Nidelkoff discloses a sign that can move in a vertical direction on a frame. The sign faces are arranged so that there is sufficient space on the interior of the sign, between the sign faces, to place a bank of lights. The sign is positioned with a winch which may be operated manually or with an electric motor. The winch is connected to the sign by a pulley and cable system that may be arranged on the interior of the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,269 issued to Catteau is directed to an illuminated display case that has a motor-driven drum for raising the notice, poster, or placard through a slot in the bottom of the case. The case has a light source in the form of fluorescent tubes. At the bottom of the case is a slot or access opening through which the poster can be lowered for changing by operating an electric motor through push buttons. When the drum unwinds, the plasticized linen, blind, or flexible element, to which the poster is attached, is lowered and can be changed. In an alternative embodiment, the drum does not have a flexible panel but two spaced links such as chains, cables, or wires according to the strength and flexibility required. To prevent overwinding, an idler roller is provided with a component able to tilt and break contact and stop the motor when the poster is in the proper position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,274 issued to Anderson et al. is directed to a sign suspension system that is ceiling-mounted and remotely controlled to raise and lower the sign. The sign support system includes a ceiling attachment and a motor-operated drum unit that includes a control circuit with an antenna, a reversible, and a reduction gear driven by a motor to operate the drum. The control unit is operated by a remote control unit through the antenna in a manner similar to radio-controlled garage doors. When the sign suspension system is operated so as to lower the sign, a cord is lengthened so that, as it passes through sheaves, a main rail lowers. The main rail supports side rails that can be adjusted to provide a total length equal to the width of the sign that is to be displayed. The sign is inserted between the rail sections and thumb screws are passed through the sign and rail sections and tightened.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,803 issued to Ruderman is directed to a system having several embodiments. The system is used to raise and lower banners, flags, or posters which are suspended from a support member mounted to the ceiling. The first embodiment has a ceiling unit with a tubular housing horizontally oriented relative to an elongate shaft for rotation by a reversible motor. Openings at opposite sides provide access to the shaft for lines to support a banner. A control device permits operation of the system from the floor. The control device comprises a housing containing an electric battery and has a handle so that the control device may be held while standing on the floor. A paddle with electric contacts can engage contacts on the ceiling housing for operating the motor. In the ceiling housing is provided a brake that frictionally engages the axle when the motor is not being operated so as to restrict movement of the banner or sign.
In a further embodiment, the motor is located in the control device. A drive train in the form of an endless chain is connected to a cog provided on the paddle end of the control device that engages a cog provided on the axle of the ceiling unit, thus supplying power for raising and lowering the banner. In a further embodiment, a cog is mechanically driven by a crank rather than an electric motor, the crank being located in the handle section of the control device.
In other embodiments, instead of an endless chain or belt, a flexible cable supported by a rigid rod could transfer the power to the ceiling unit. A further contemplated embodiment involves the use of 90° gearing orientation such as a pinion and bevel gear, skew bevel, or worm gear which would translate the rotational movement of the elongate vertical pull to an intersecting transverse axle on which the driving cog is mounted. A further embodiment which uses a 90° gear engagement to transfer power from the control rod to the ceiling unit has a control device with a hook at the terminal end of an extended rod that is telescopic and its length may be adjusted by the rotation of frictional collars. A frictional clutch is provided to engage the control rod and transfer power from the motor. In an alternate contemplated embodiment, the control rod is engaged by a chuck such as found on conventional power drills. Such devices that are available in rechargeable battery powered models could be used in connection with this system to power the raising and lowering of a sign or banner.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,283 issued to Archer is directed to a price totem that has a vertical slideway for mounting a carriage that carries numbers and can be moved from an upper display position to a lower price change position easily accessed by a person standing on the ground. The indicating mechanism for a price display device comprises an outer frame on which is mounted an inner frame defining a vertical slideway along which a carriage can be moved from the elevated display position to the lower price change position. The carriage may have a single number location or a number of vertically spaced locations. Upper and lower pulleys are mounted on the top and bottom of the frame with a cord, rope, or chain extending from the top of the carriage around the pulley to the upper end of a center weight. A second cord, rope, or chain is attached to the lower end of the weight, extends around the lower pulley, and is attached to the bottom of the carriage. The carriage, two cords, and weight form a closed loop. The operator can pull down or up on the cord, rope, or chain to change the position of the carriage.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0035799 filed by Ellingsen is directed to a suspension device for displaying a poster or the like on the side of a wall. The device has a pulley arrangement that eliminates the need for a large, stiff, heavy top bar. A poster with a thick upper and lower edge is slid into undercut grooves in the top bar and lower bar. Wall elements are attached to a wall along which the poster is to be suspended. A cord for raising and lowering the poster is secured to one wall element and is fed through the four pulleys on the upper bar and over the pulleys in the wall elements. The lower bar, due to its own weight, will keep the poster stretched during raising. The upper bar will not flex, even when it is of large length, because it is supported in at least three regions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,775 issued to Hoyt et al. discloses a pull-down signboard and relatively complex support frame adaptable to existing vertical sign columns capable of retrofit over existing signs. The signboard and support frame are mounted on a single column and use a pulley system with counterweights inside a cable channel running along either side of the column so that the sign can be lowered to ground level. The operator uses a pole and hook with a special extendable retracting handle, while standing on the ground, to unlatch and lower for sign alteration, then raise and latch following sign alteration, the signboard and support frame. The manual system is time-consuming and requires both strength and effort. No brake or guide tracks are provided to assure safety.
To overcome the shortcomings of conventional outdoor commercial signage, a new system for installing, supporting, and moving sign faces for such signs is provided. An object of the present invention is to provide an improved mechanism for installing, supporting, and moving sign faces for commercial signs. A related object is to provide a system that can be easily retrofitted over existing commercial signage. Another object is to allow a sign face to be moved without the need to move the underlying sign box and the illumination source of the sign box.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system which can be used separately for each face of a sign display that has multiple sign faces thereby enabling a user of the system to separately raise and lower each sign face of the sign display. Yet another object of this invention is to provide separate moving systems which allow each sign face to be moved independently. A further object of the present invention is to provide a system which allows a single person to simply and automatically pull down a sign panel, change the information on the sign panel, and return the sign panel to its display position safely, economically, and in a very short period of time.